This aluminium and perspex sign, 'City loop, free service every 5 minutes', was installed at a City Loop bus stop during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. This free service ran every five minutes, between 9.30am and 1am, from 13 September to 3 October 2000, connecting CityRail stations and other key points in the city centre. Olympic sponsors, Universal Parcel Services (UPS), Samsung and Westpac, funded the service, and their names now appear on the bus stop signage. The Brisbane company, Dot Dash, designed this and other wayfinding devices at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Ranging from signage and maps to flags and banners, wayfinding devices were essential for guiding the vast crowds of people in Sydney during the Games. Many built environments, including competition venues, the Main Press Centre, the Athletes' Village, Media Village, transport interchanges and civic spaces, featured distinctive elements of the Sydney 2000 wayfinding system. Underlying the system, a consistent set of colours, symbols, typography, language and materials coordinated wayfinding devices and standardised their interpretation. (Recurring features included yellow grounds, blue typefaces, blue and white pictograms and aluminium frames.)

From 1998 onwards, Brisbane company, Dot Dash, worked in concert with the Sydney 2000 Image Department to develop signage complimentary to the Games' Kit of Parts - the formal set of colours, motifs, typefaces and other visual elements that would brand the Games. These characteristics, and most notably the use of Sydney yellow, Sydney aqua and the Helvetica typeface, would tie the wayfinding devices to the Games' broader visual theme.

Experienced in developing wayfinding devices, Dot Dash decided to adopt a fresh and broad approach for its work on the Sydney 2000 Games. Its new vision would include the standard maps, banners and signage as well as some atypical tools that would help to situate spectators at the Games. These would encompass media backdrops, fields of play, sports equipment, ground graphics and 30 major entry towers (9-metre, timber structures that resembled lifesavers' chairs and served as entrances, watchtowers, signposts, information bases and night-time beacons).

By September 2000, Dot Dash had created 47,000 signs, 9,000 banners, 4,500 flags, 19,500 metres of corral and fascia treatments, 4,500 square-metres of ground graphics, 44,000 metres of fence fabric, 2,000 square metres of printed decals, 50 media backdrops, 30 major entry towers, 300 sports equipment treatments and around 200 custom-built installations. More broadly, it had developed wayfinding strategies; designed signage and banners (both for competition and non-competition venues); and had drafted maps of venues and key sites around Sydney. These tools would contribute to a uniform image of Sydney and the Olympic Games, and would help to guide athletes, spectators, staff, volunteers and residents through Sydney.

The Brisbane company, Dot Dash, designed this and other wayfinding devices at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Made from aluminium and perspex, it was developed to withstand all weather conditions.

This sign, 'City loop', was made in 2000 to service passengers on the bus loop that connected Sydney railways with the city centre. Made from perspex and aluminium, it was installed prior to 13 September 2000.

This sign, 'City loop, free service every 5 minutes', was installed at a City Loop bus stop during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The free service ran every five minutes, between 9.30am and 1am, from 13 September to 3 October 2000, connecting CityRail stations and other key points in the city centre. Olympic sponsors, Universal Parcel Services (UPS), Samsung and Westpac, funded the service, and their names now appear on the bus stop signage.

Made for and owned by the Olympic Coordination Authority/Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, and donated to the Powerhouse Museum after use in the Games.

Sign, 'City loop, free service every 5 minutes', perspex/aluminium, Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, designed by Dot Dash, Brisbane c.1999

Road sign, aluminium with perspex covering. Yellow with purple text 'City Loop / Free Service every 5 minutes / 9:30am to 1:00am / 13 September to 3 October / Proudly bought to you by' Text is followed by the UPS logo, Samsung logo and Westpac logo. Reverse of sign is the same as the front. Reverse side has a crack in the top left hand corner of Perspex. Attached to the left hand side of sign is a round bracket - bracket shaped to attach to a pole with bolts.

Designed: 1994 - 2004

2001/84/510

1994 - 2004

280 mm

310 mm